Inflation and dilution

in #thoughts5 years ago

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Nearly two weeks ago I started voting with my freshly acquired portion of PAL tokens. The reason I set my goal at 15000 PAL was that based on my first votes that would generate 10 PAL with a 100% vote at near full voting power. With the 50/50 curating split that was for me an appealing number to play around with.

Actually, I thought it was rather a lot and therefore started thinking about how to use that voting power in a balanced way. And with balanced I mean that voting decision ideally would not only be based on the me-portion of the 50/50 curation split, but on the effect it could have on the one voted on as well.

Now, two weeks later, it is becoming clear that my first impression of the impact I could have on the platform, was a bit exaggerated. Based on my latest vote, the effect of my stake is neatly halved: 5 PAL for a 100% vote at near full voting power. Actually, it is a bit more, but for comparison's sake, I calculated it as if I still had 15000 PAL staked.

The halved effect of my voting is on the one hand a bit of a disappointment. The estimation I made two week ago of the amount of PAL I could have staked at the end of the year turns out to be a bit optimistic (to say the least). On the other hand, I perceive it as a blessing as well. Because of the lessened effect of my vote I don't feel as strongly the need to take the effect of voting on the whole of the community in consideration. And I feel more the freedom to just vote what I like, even if that means a fully egocentric decision.

The interesting question is of course what causes this halving in just two weeks. Is it the intended inflation of the reward pool? Or is it the consequence of more people joining PalNET and earning PAL? In other words, does the growth of total staked PAL also mean a dimished return of a vote per staked PAL? I think the answer to the last queston is yes. The effect I see is more the effect of dilution than the effect of inflation. However, I'm not versed in the underlying mechanisms of cryptocurrency in general and Steem/PAL in particular. If I'm wrong, someone will no doubt correct me.


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Congrats anyway for getting to 15k PAL. I was too slow to get onboard. I only have 1K and two PALMM. Looking forward to how it all pans out though.

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I guess I was lucky to be sitting at my computer at the right moment. And also too slow to foresee the success of PALNet, I was rather cautious in buying.

In other words, does the growth of total staked PAL also mean a dimished return of a vote per staked PAL?

Exactly this. The reward pool is the same size, no matter how thinly sliced. The more stake actually voting, the less of the total reward pool each controls.

Put another way, the % of the total reward pool controlled has fallen as the % of total PAL base being voted has increased.

The same thing happens on Steem, btw, which is why the returns on voting and delegation are so much higher than inflation. The reward pool controlled by each voting stakeholder is amplified by the non-voting of other stakeholders (like Steemit, for example.)

If I understood you correctly there is an extra nuance I had not previously realised: it's not just a matter of how much PAL is staked, it's more a matter of how much of that staked PAL is used for voting.
In that sense the halving which I mentioned in my post is not only a measure of the spreading of PAL, it is also a measure of how active the community holding staked PAL is in voting and curating. And thus of the succes of PalNET!
A halving in under two weeks then means a huge success. Congratulations!!

A halving in under two weeks then means a huge success. Congratulations!!

That's a fun way of looking at it. I hadn't really thought about that but it's pretty true.

Part of it was also resolution of the decimal precision issues. When smaller accounts voted, no PAL was actually taken from pool because of lack of decimal precision, which left more PAL available in the pool for accounts with high enough stake to actually distribute it.

That's new to me. I thought it was a problem in the GUI. That smaller portions were correctly allocated, just not correctly represented on screen.
Then it's a good thing the decimal precision issue was resolved as quickly s it was.

They were correctly allocated, up until the issuance of rewards on each post. Then decimals were lopped off and only the digit before the decimal mattered (0.999 => 0)

My PAL upvote values also have dropped noticeably. It might be because more people are at the table now. But the value of PAL is continuing to rise against Steem so I think we'll be OK.

Yes, we'll survive... :-) A thriving community is a prerequisite for having something to vote on.

it's still a very, very, very good investment....wish I had cash to invest

Investing is not the only way to procure PAL. Writing and curating are also good means for that.